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“I’m ready to go, but he’s the champ. He’s the champ, he makes the rules. So I’m on standby and I’m waiting to see when this guy says that we’re going to fight.”
Don’t expect to see Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic back in the cage anytime soon.
Both men were expected to collide in a trilogy bout early next year but, according to Cormier, the fight isn’t likely to take place until June.
Speaking to MMA Junkie in a recent interview, ‘DC’ said ‘we’re going to be waiting a little bit’ for the rematch, claiming that the ball is in now in Miocic’s court.
“There’s no time for us to fight until maybe June,” Cormier told MMA Junkie recently. “The way the UFC quarterly schedule is looking, the UFC essentially, with them announcing Tony [Ferguson] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] for April, there’s really no time. We’re going to be waiting a little bit.”
“I’m ready to go, but he’s the champ. He’s the champ, he makes the rules. So I’m on standby and I’m waiting to see when this guy says that we’re going to fight. When he does, I’ll be prepared. I’ll be ready – even more prepared than the last time because I feel I can prepare better from the very start right now.”
Both men are currently tied 1-1, with Cormier KO’ing Miocic to win the heavyweight title in 2018 and Miocic rallying back the following year to reclaim what he thought was rightfully his.
UFC 241 saw Miocic TKO Cormier in the fourth round after dropping the former Olympian with a body shot, and Cormier says he has been working with George Foreman to tighten his boxing defense in the rematch.
“I think what’s great for me is in five rounds of fighting I’ve won the vast majority of those rounds,” Cormier said. “That’s what feels good for me in my preparation. There are some things I need to change. Obviously he did a great job of adjusting and punching me in the body last time, and that’s what ultimately won him the fight. But I’ve already started to take the steps to try to improve that.
“I’m working with George Foreman now, and he showed me some tips to help with the boxing. The reality is it’s all boxing. Stipe isn’t kicking me very much, he’s punching and punching and I’m punching and wrestling. I’ve started to work on some things to try to shore up that issue that caused me so many problems last time.”
Although the trilogy bout might be a ways away, Cormier is excited to complete what he feels is one of the greatest rivalries in UFC history.
“I think Stipe and I have a fantastic rivalry,” Cormier said. “I won the first fight in tremendous fashion, he won the second fight in tremendous fashion. I feel like we’ve had the first two acts of a three-act drama and we have to do the trilogy fight and eventually we’re going to do that.”